Some of conventional ink-jet printers are structured to print an object on a print medium and then cut the medium in accordance with the printed image. An example of such ink-jet printers is an ink-jet printer equipped with a cutting head described in Patent Document 1. This ink-jet printer has a cutting head and an ink-jet head, wherein an image is printed on a medium by the ink-jet head, and the image-printed medium is cut by the cutting head along, for example, the contour of the printed image.
[Patent Document 1] JP 2006-95822 A.
When an image is printed on a medium and the image-printed medium is then cut in accordance with the image printed thereon as described in the prior art document, adjustment is necessary between the position of the image printed by the ink-jet head and the position of cutting by the cutting head. The adjustment of these positions specifically includes printing cross-shaped marks, generally called register marks, at four corners of the printed image, detecting the positions of the printed register marks, and comparing the detected positions of the register marks to the positions of register marks in print data. The position adjustment further includes calculating through comparison the ratio of the actually printed image to the print data, and correcting the position of cutting by the cutting head based on the calculated ratio.
For the position adjustment, it is necessary to print and positionally detect the register marks for each image to be printed and calculate the ratio of the printed image to the print data. The position adjustment thus necessitating a number of processes associated with printing and cutting is a very complicated procedure. Additionally, it is necessary to secure on a print medium enough space for the register marks to be printed.